CVE-2023-24535Network attack vector

Process crash via incomplete negative number parsing

Published Jun 8, 2023 · Updated Jan 6, 2025

Denial of service in Google Protocol Buffers Go 1.29.0 allows remote attackers to crash a consuming process via malformed text-format input. The internal text decoder's parseNumber function consumes whitespace after a minus sign, then accesses an empty byte slice while classifying the next token. Reachability requires attacker-controlled text to reach prototext.Unmarshal or UnmarshalOptions.Unmarshal; binary-format parsing is not implicated.

CVSS severity7.5
High
EPSS probability1.09%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Denial of service in Google Protocol Buffers Go 1.29.0 allows remote attackers to crash a consuming process via malformed text-format input. The internal text decoder's parseNumber function consumes whitespace after a minus sign, then accesses an empty byte slice while classifying the next token. Reachability requires attacker-controlled text to reach prototext.Unmarshal or UnmarshalOptions.Unmarshal; binary-format parsing is not implicated.

The record

CVE
CVE-2023-24535
Published
Jun 8, 2023
Updated
Jan 6, 2025
Vendor
Google
Product
Protocol Buffers Go
Classifications
CWE-125, T1499
Attack vector
network
Privileges
unauthenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Jun 8, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Jan 6, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=1.29.0 <1.29.1

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectornetwork
Required privilegesunauthenticated

What is affected?

Google · Protocol Buffers Goversion=1.29.0 <1.29.1

Published CVSS scores

7.5GitHub Advisory DatabaseCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectornetwork
Privilegesunauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-125Out-of-bounds Read
T1499Endpoint Denial of Service

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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